Just Like You
by MuggleBeene
Summary: Harry has agreed to Dudley's idea of dinner with Vernon and Petunia. Even Dudley's surprise doesn't change things, or does it? Slight connections to the Professor Muggle story series.


**Just Like You**

_**A/N: Slight connections to the Professor Muggle universe of stories, so if you're confused on who a couple of characters and some references to certain events they're from the Professor Muggle, Professor Muggle: Year 2 and Professor Muggle and the Lost Witch novels. Story is set four years after the events of Lost Witch.**_

_21 December, 2012_

Harry looked over at the clock for the third time in ten minutes, causing his wife to sigh deeply. She knew that he was nervous about their plans for the evening, more so than he'd been about anything in ages, but he was acting like a child. She'd laid out his clothing for the evening so it would be ready when he arrived home from the Cannons Quidditch match he had promised to attend with Ron, but mostly so that he wouldn't dawdle about trying to decide what to wear. She knew how he got when they had an event to attend that he would rather avoid.

"Harry, he'll be here soon. He said he'd be here at seven, so just wait. Honestly, you're worse than James."

After taking off his glasses Harry pointedly cleaned them, avoiding his wife's comments. Yes, he was anxious, but in no way, shape or form was he as bad at being patient as his oldest son. The tie that Ginny 'requested' that he wear was too tight, the new Muggle suit was uncomfortable, and he knew that no matter what the intentions, the evening was going to end in a disaster, regardless of the fact that it was the Christmas season. If there was ever a 'bah, humbug' type of person it was his Uncle Vernon.

"You're just not used to waiting, Mr. Head Auror." Ginny smiled at him, but her smile faded as her oldest son came downstairs, tromping loudly on each step to create the largest amount of noise. Trailing behind was Lavinia Ryder-Smythe, and she didn't look happy.

Harry sighed as his seven-year old son and Lavinia walked towards the kitchen. A few moments later Lavinia returned to the sitting room. "He's got ten minutes on the time-out stool in the kitchen for hitting Albus with a shoe."

"Are you sure you want to do this, Lavinia? Shouldn't you and Willy be going out instead of watching our kids?" Harry looked hopeful that Lavinia might agree, sparing him a rather uncomfortable evening.

"Oh no, Harry. Besides, Ginny made it worth my while, tickets to the Puddlemere and Wimbourne match. Willy's so excited to sit in the box." She paused suddenly and cocked her ear towards the kitchen. "I'll be right back."

Before Harry could say anything he and Ginny heard Lavinia telling James that he was not going to escape by crawling through the window and that he'd just earned an additional ten minutes on the time-out stool. He shook his head and looked at his wife. "You gave away the Puddlemere an' Wimbourne tickets? I thought you said Ron and I could have those."

Ginny sat down her magazine. "I had to do it. Do you know how many sitters have refused to watch our children? It's never Al or Lily that is the problem."

"Merlin. That's going to be a good match, too."

The knock on the front door of Grimmauld Place saved Harry from hearing about his misplaced parental priorities. He glanced over at the clock on the way to welcome his expected guest and wasn't surprised to see it say the time was exactly seven o'clock. When he opened the door, however, he was well and truly surprised.

"Hi Harry. Um, I think you know JoJo?"

Harry nodded. "Hi Dudley. Good to see you again, JoJo. Come on in." He welcomed the couple into his house and shut the door. He exhaled deeply and ran a hand through his hair. He'd been dreading the dinner with Dudley and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, especially as he was nervous about Ginny around his Muggle relatives. Well, not Dudley, but Petunia and especially Vernon. He was accustomed to let the little slights and digs roll off of his back, but his wife wasn't so magnanimous. Now that Dudley had a date, not only a date but a witch; it was going to be fascinating.

-ooo-

Ginny glanced over at their guests, and even after all those years she was surprised that Harry could be civil, let alone friendly, towards his cousin Dudley. After all that he'd gone through growing up on Privet Drive, the horrible stories that she'd pulled out of him in drips and drabs over the years, she still couldn't believe how forgiving Harry could be. Of course, the few times she'd been in Dudley's company he was very polite and apologetic about his past behavior, and eventually she had been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Tonight, though, made her look at him in an entirely different light. There he was on their sofa, chatting with Harry, holding hands with JoJo Velazquez, a witch who she'd met through Melody Boyd. As she noticed everyone looking at her she realized that they must be waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me. Did I miss something?"

Everyone laughed. JoJo ran a hand through her long, dark hair, exposing the red streak down the left side. "I asked you if you thought it would go better tonight if we took the kids."

"Oh Merlin, no!" Ginny shook her head. "I want to have a meal without playing referee between the boys."

"I think she meant it might go better with Vernon and Petunia if the kids were there." Harry smiled. "But I agree. We haven't been out as a couple in a while. You know what my schedule is like. I had to put this on the calendar weeks ago."

"Tell me about it." Dudley nodded. "We've been busy, too. Just busted a burglary ring in Chelsea, and that took a bloody long time." His eyes widened in worry. "Sorry about my language, Ginny."

Harry snickered. "You should have heard what used to come out of her mouth when she played Quidditch."

Ginny shot Harry a perturbed look. "Enough of that. You're quite all right, Dudley, I have a lot of brothers, you know. Heard it all." She noticed that the conversation seemed to hit a lull, so she charged forward with the question that had to be on Harry's mind as well. "So, Dudley, JoJo, how did you two meet?"

JoJo and Dudley looked at each other and smiled. After declining to start the story in favor of the other person, eventually Dudley acquiesced to JoJo's wishes. "Well, it was a few months ago, back in August, and I was working at the Notting Hill carnival when someone called my name. I saw Professor Muggle, um, Hank Boyd, waving at me, and he had some people with him. It took me a moment to remember him, but we talked for a minute or so and he invited me out to get a pint at the pub. It'd been a long day, and I was off in about an hour, so I took him up on it. After heading home to get rid of the uniform when I got to the pub JoJo was there, and, well…we just kind of hit it off."

"I had no idea he was your cousin, Harry." JoJo glanced quickly at Dudley. "I just thought he was good looking. And then to find out he was a constable…well, I do love a man in a uniform."

"Should have kept on the uniform, then." Dudley grinned at JoJo. "And I had no idea she was a witch. Hank had some Muggles with him at the pub, his brothers and some other bloke, so I just assumed the only witch there was Melody."

"Things just went from there." JoJo smiled at Ginny. "I've never really seen much of Muggle London so Dudley was my tour guide. We went to a footballing game and a couple of art galleries…"

Harry sat down his drink. "Wait. Dudley went to an art gallery? Dudley? When did you become an art lover?"

"Um, well…" Dudley shifted his shoulders back and forth for a bit. "Can't say that I ever went in for art, but there were some…"

James walked into the room and sat down next to Dudley on the sofa. "All done. What's for supper?"

-ooo-

The sedate grey Vauxhall Astra pulled up to an empty parking spot at the steakhouse, sliding a tiny bit as it came to a stop in the snow. For the last half-hour the snow had begun falling rapidly, covering everything in a thick, wet, white blanket. The temperature had also changed considerably. Dudley turned off the engine and looked over to the passenger seat.

"Harry, do you really want to do this? Not too late to back out. You could disappear from an alley or something."

Harry shook his head. "No, I don't want to Apparate home now. Been working up to this for too long to back out now." He looked into the back seat and saw Ginny putting on her gloves. "Remember, you promised."

Ginny straightened her back. "Yes, Harry. I promised. But remember, I can only take so much."

Dudley got out of the car and hurriedly went to the door to open it for JoJo, which got Harry a dirty look from his wife because he'd simply got out of the car and waited. After Ginny closed the door and went to his side she took his arm.

"I'll forgive that because I know you're all worked up. You haven't slept well for the last two nights." Her tone softened considerably. "Just one dinner, Harry, and then it'll all be over. No more wondering."

He nodded quickly. "You remembered only to bring the Muggle pictures of the kids, right?"

"Yes, Harry. Now come on, JoJo and Dudley are waiting."

The followed JoJo and Dudley into the restaurant, and even though Harry noticed that JoJo had her arm linked through Dudley's he couldn't really register that fact. The only thing going through his mind was that he wished that he hadn't let Ginny talk him into accepting Dudley's invitation to dinner with Vernon and Petunia. Ginny was the one who had convinced him to meet with Dudley after receiving a very nice Christmas card from him a couple of years ago, and it had been tentative at first. They'd met at a Muggle pub for a quick pint and that's when he discovered the changes in his cousin. Gone was the priggish, nasty, chubby boy who'd teased him and done much worse when he was living at Privet Drive. Instead, building on that final handshake with Dudley years ago, was a tall, thick-set man who seemed to be more muscles than fat. His hair had been cut conservatively, and he seemed almost like an Auror. That's when Dudley had shattered the image that Harry had held in his mind for years; his rule-breaking, layabout and aimless cousin had decided to become a police constable. He's started after finishing school and scraping a couple of A levels, and had since been promoted from a little sleepy village to London. After that they met occasionally for a pint, but when the missing Muggle Studies professor case had been on he'd enlisted Dudley's help, as if there was any non-magical person about who knew about magic it was Dudley; Dementors can really change one's mind about the existence of magic.

"Reservation for Dursley." Dudley stood at the little reception area and nodded to the maitre d.

It was then that Harry realized that they were in the restaurant; he had no recollection of walking inside. He felt Ginny's hand lace her fingers through his, rubbing a finger over his wedding ring in emphasis.

They followed the maitre d through the dining room and Harry took a moment to notice Dudley's choice of restaurants; tasteful, expensive, and from what he'd heard from Hermione, expensive. He knew that would probably put Vernon in a good mood, his son being successful enough to afford a meal at a posh restaurant. Ginny's strides became quicker, and he realized that she was purposely walking in front of him.

"Dudders!" Vernon Dursley stood up from the table, his eyes wide upon seeing JoJo. "And you've brought…" His eyes narrowed immediately as Harry and Ginny came into his view. "You! What are you doing here? I won't sit…"

"Dad." Dudley's voice was controlled, but firm. "I invited him and Ginny. It's Christmas. I wanted my _family_ to meet JoJo."

Harry's eyes flicked to his Aunt Petunia, who sat rigid in a puce colored suit that was horribly out-of-fashion, even for witches. Her lips pursed and she glanced at him, then Ginny, but finally came to light on JoJo. As soon as she transferred her attention to the very pretty and somewhat exotic witch holding Dudley's hand her expression changed dramatically.

"Do sit down, Vernon. Dudley, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Dudley smiled at JoJo. "Mum, Dad, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Josefina Maria Zarita Velasquez."

JoJo extended her hand to Petunia. "Now you know why I go by JoJo. Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Dursley."

Petunia half-rose out of her chair, not sure if she should stand up or not, and awkwardly shook JoJo's hand. Vernon shook hands with her in turn, and then he finally sat down. Harry sat down quickly, and once again felt chagrined as Dudley pulled out JoJo's chair for her. Ginny sat down next to her husband quickly and patted his leg under the table.

Vernon reached for his glass of red wine and drank from it heavily, leaving a faint trace of dampness on the bottom of his bushy mustache. "So, JoJo, what do you do for a living?"

"International business, sir." She smiled at Vernon and gave Harry a small, quick glance out of the corner of her eye. "My family is originally from Spain. I used to travel quite a bit but I'm based in London now."

Harry looked over to Ginny, who sat between him and Petunia, and wondered why the bloody hell he ever agreed to dinner with Vernon and Petunia. Luckily he was spared any further thought by the waitress who arrived with menus and to take the new arrival's drink orders. Dudley turned the wine selection over to JoJo, who picked a moderately priced, but very-well regarded bottle of Bierzo red for the table.

For the next few minutes Harry felt as if he was back in the cupboard under the stairs at Privet Drive, as he was utterly and thoroughly ignored. Vernon and Petunia insisted upon hearing how Dudley and JoJo had met, and as the story was recounted with some minor alterations to ignore anything magical Harry felt Ginny's foot tapping away madly next to his. He was used to being treated with indifference by his aunt and uncle; Ginny wasn't.

It was when Vernon was talking about how good it was that the London force had a constable such as Dudley on their team that Ginny couldn't take it any longer. "Harry's in law enforcement as well."

The conversation stopped as every eye turned to Ginny. Eventually, and surprisingly, the silence was broken by Petunia.

"That's…very nice, Harry. I'm sure they're glad to have you as well."

"Glad?" Ginny's tone was one of incredulity. "He's the head of the…"

"Force." Dudley nodded at Ginny. "Head of the force for his lot. Right, Harry?"

Harry nodded. "Mmmm-hmmm." He was silent for a while until Ginny kicked him underneath the table. "Keeps me very busy, and with the kids…"

Petunia's head snapped around. "Children?"

As if on cue Ginny reached into her purse and pulled out the Muggle photographs of the children. "James is seven, Al is six and Lily is four."

Slowly Petunia's head moved from the photograph to Harry. "You named her after my sister."

Harry heard clinking noises from Vernon's area of the table and ignored them. "Yes, we did. She has red hair, too. Ginny's idea. Um, Aunt Petunia, this is my wife, Ginny. We've been married twelve years now."

Before anyone could say a word the waitress arrived, pad in hand, ready to take their orders. Harry glanced over at Dudley, who gave him a wink and a brief nod of encouragement.

-ooo-

As they worked through their steaks Harry noticed that Vernon was drinking heavily. He hoped that all those years of mistreatment were weighing heavily on his uncle's mind, but if he knew Vernon Dursley it was probably more along the lines of what rotten luck he had to endure the presence of 'the boy' and his wife. Luckily JoJo sat next to Vernon, so she kept him entertained with stories of growing up in Spain, her various business trips and the difficulties of doing contracts with different countries. Vernon had agreed wholeheartedly, as it appeared he had moved up somewhat to a lower middle-management position in regards to selling Grunnings drills to developing countries. Some things hadn't changed, though, as his prejudice against different cultures and 'those backward bastards who can't speak proper English' came through loud and clear.

Harry hadn't spoken much during the meal, just a few things, and never to Vernon. Ginny was his salvation, as she chatted somewhat awkwardly with Petunia about the difficulties of raising three children close in age, especially James. She was careful never to mention anything magical, only things that would seem commonplace to any Muggle who happened to overhear. Immediately George Weasley's favorite story leapt to the forefront of his mind, about how James had sent a pair of Ginny's knickers to Harry at the Ministry of Magic via owl, and he imagined Petunia's face if she would have heard the story.

After the plates had been cleared and the dessert tray had been thoroughly examined Vernon turned his drunken eyes upon Harry. "Just because I'm here doesn't mean I intend on making this a habit, boy. I have a position to uphold. I won't have you muck up anything, I've worked too long and hard to have you…you…you _freaks_ spoil it all. I suppose your children are freaks as well. Freaks just like you."

"Dad! Stop it, now." Dudley leaned over the table and pointed at his father. "Remember what I said. I know exactly what charges would be brought if…"

Harry shook his head and waved off Dudley. "Forget it. He's not going to change."

Vernon's voice grew louder. "And why the bloody hell should I? I'm the Assistant Vice-Regional International Manager! If it wasn't for us you'd have been out on the street. Who saved your sorry little arse from the big, bad…whatever he was. Us! At least Dudley made us proud, top constable on the London force! Look at him now." Vernon puffed out his chest and took a sloppy gulp of wine. "You should be more like him, he wouldn't go off and make more freaks. He's got a nice, sensible girl with a head for business..."

It was at that point that Dudley snapped. He threw his napkin disgustedly on the table. "I've had about enough of this. Do you know what I deal with every day, Dad? Kids. Kids in trouble. I arrest a lot of them, and you know what they all have in common? Parents who…oh the hell with it. You like JoJo, right, Dad? Think she's all right? Well guess what? She's _just_ like Harry and Ginny." He waited for his words to sink in, and when they did Vernon's eyes grew wide and he turned an awful shade of red. "Yeah. Just like Harry and Ginny. And if I'm lucky, and things go like I hope they will, maybe someday we'll have lots of kids who will go to the exact same school that they did." He stood up and extended his hand to JoJo. "Are you ready? I've lost my appetite for dessert."

As JoJo took Dudley's hand Harry looked over to his aunt, who seemed to be in a state of shock. He stood up, held back Ginny's chair for her, and helped her out of her seat. Without another look back they followed Dudley and JoJo out of the restaurant.

The drive back to Grimmauld Place was deathly quiet for a while until Dudley suddenly banged his hand several times on the steering wheel. "I can't bloody believe him. You'd think after all these years he'd let it go. I mean, for Chrissakes, Harry, you and Ginny have kids! You'd think he'd be interested. Bloody fucking hell." He was quiet for a while, but after taking a series of deep breaths he looked over to Harry. "At least Mum seemed interested. She's asked me about you once or twice, never when Dad's around."

The stillness in the Astra pervaded for a while until Ginny laughed in the back seat. Harry looked around to her oddly. "What's so funny?"

Ginny smirked. "They have to pay for everything."

Dudley let out a giant guffaw, almost causing him to run a red light. "Oh, that's good. Dad will be steamed for weeks about it. Weeks, I tell you."

"Yeah, and he'll probably blame me." Harry shook his head. "It was a good try, Dudley, but I don't think we'll do that again."

-ooo-

"MUM!" James' voice rang out from the downstairs, interrupting Ginny's reading. "MUM! MUMMY!"

Ginny sat down the recent Quidditch scouting reports and headed downstairs. "James Sirius, stop shouting. Now, what is it?"

He met her at the foot of the stairs. "There's an Auror in the Floo who wants to talk to you, summing about a package."

"Something, James, something, not summing. I need to have a talk with your Uncle Ron about his language. Go play." As her oldest son ran out of the room she called after him. "And be nice to your sister for a change." With that completed she headed over to the Floo to see Seamus Finnegan's head in the green flames. "Seamus, this is a surprise. I hope you're not Flooing me to say Harry will be late tonight. James said _something_ about a package?"

Seamus nodded. "Yeh, it's about a package. You know we intercept all mail for ya that we can't identify, and this un threw us. It's a Muggle package, no return address."

"A Muggle package? That's odd, we don't know very many Muggles that would send us a package through the post."

Seamus nodded. "That's what we thought, too. Harry doesn't know, he's in Canada right now talking to their lot. He'll be back in plenty of time, don't worry. Oh, and we had it checked out, too. Didn't open it, but I can tell you it isn't cursed or anything. No magic detected at all. Want me to bring it over?"

Five minutes later Seamus stood inside the kitchen at Grimmauld Place and declined Ginny's offer of a cup of tea as the package in question sat on the kitchen table. It was a plain cardboard box, about the size of the old History of Magic textbook that Ginny hated lugging around the halls of Hogwarts, and she looked at it intently.

"Should I open it? It is addressed to Harry. Odd, though, it just says 'Harry Potter, London.' It seems like they don't know him very well, we use that fake address the Ministry provided years ago for anything Muggle."

Seamus shrugged. "You're his wife. Gotta head back, paperwork."

Lily ran into the kitchen, crying. After Ginny picked her up Lily sobbed into her mum's shoulder about how James told her she was ugly as a troll and would lose all her hair. Ginny looked over to Seamus. "Thank you, I'll wait until he gets home. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go sort out my oldest son."

Four hours later Harry Flooed home, dusted himself off, and headed into the kitchen to get something to drink. As he put his head in the enchanted refrigerator he glanced over to see James sitting on the 'naughty stool' in the corner. After retrieving a butterbeer he closed the door and looked over to his son. "How long this time?"

James sprang up off the stool. "Until you get home an' now your home so I don't hafta sit there no more."

"Have to and any more, James. Have to and anymore. What did you do this time?"

James made a face as if he had just tasted the worst thing in the world. "Lily's being a pain. She told a fib and I got in trouble."

'James?" Harry looked over his glasses at his son. "Is that what really happened?"

"Didja see your package? Mum said we had to wait 'til you gots home to open it. Can I open it?"

Harry followed his son's eyes to the cardboard box that sat on the kitchen table. Momentarily forgetting to correct his son's language he concentrated on the package. After stepping over to the table he turned the box around so he could read the writing. Muggle postage stamps?

"Harry, there you are." Ginny came into the room carrying Albus, who didn't look well. "Sorry, we'll have to cancel our plans with Ron and Hermione tonight, they can't come over, Al is ill."

Harry felt his son's head, and it was obvious the boy had a fever. "What is it?"

"The flu. It's going around, apparently." She saw him glance to the kitchen table. "Seamus brought that over for you. Ministry intercepted it from the Muggle post. It's safe, but I didn't want to open it without you. Let me go get Al settled and I'll be back down." She saw James trying to walk out of the room and shook her head. "Absolutely not, mister. You've still got ten minutes on the naughty stool."

Harry thumbed towards the stool and shook his head at James. "Sorry, mate, you heard your mum. Back on."

As James walked as slowly as possible back over to the stool Harry sat down at the table and put the butterbeer next to the package. He took out his wand and slowly did a small slicing charm to break the packing tape on the cardboard, and then sat his wand down. He nervously opened the box, revealing packing peanuts and a small card on the top. He opened the card and his eyes went wide.

_Harry,_

_I would like to apologize for your Uncle's behaviour at dinner the other night. He's under quite a bit of stress at work with his increased responsibilities. I am afraid he's still not over the shock of Dudley's information about his girlfriend, as they haven't spoken since. _

_Your wife seems quite nice. I very much appreciate her showing me pictures of your children, especially Lily. It gave me much to think about, as she looks so much like my dear sister at that age. You obviously won't remember that, so please accept this little gift. It isn't much, but I think she would like to see who she was named after._

_Perhaps when Vernon has calmed down somewhat we could meet for tea. I would like to speak with your wife and Dudley's girlfriend further. Please choose someplace where we do not have to do that horrible disappearing thing that we had to do when we went into hiding._

_Please send me a return letter with your address. I do hope this gets to you, as I did not know your address._

_Aunt Petunia_

Sitting the card aside Harry reached into the box and pulled out a small, inexpensive photo album. He slowly lifted the cover and there, after the cover page, was a photo of a small girl with red hair sitting on a swing.

"Well, he's down now, poor thing. I put a bowl by his bed in case he has to vomit." Ginny sat down across from her husband and could tell immediately that something had happened. "Harry?"

He turned the photo album around so that she could see the picture. "It's from Petunia. Apparently she is human after all."

"Mummy, I'm hungry." Lily walked into the kitchen and crawled up into her mum's lap.

Harry looked over and saw his daughter, with the same fierce red hair as her mum, and looked back at the picture of his mum, all those years ago. "Lily, would you like to see some pictures? Remember how we told you you're named after my Mummy? These are pictures of her."

Lily looked down at the picture. "She has red hair like me an' Mummy!"

Harry smiled at his daughter. "Yes, Lily, just like you."


End file.
